Method of tucking on upper cylinder needles



July 19, 1966 G. E. ENGLAND METHOD OF TUCKING ON UPPER CYLINDER NEEDLESOriginal Filed July 18, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 flo July 19, 1966 G. E.ENGLAND METHOD OF TUCKING ON UPPER CYLINDER NEEDLES Original Filed July18, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent Oil dce 3,251,183Patented July 19, 1966 3,261,183 METHOD F TUCKING 0N UPPER CYLINDERNEEDLES George Edward England, Glenleld, England, assignor to MidlandHosiery Mills Limited, Leicester, England @riginal application July 18,1961, Ser. No. 124,938. Divided and this application Feb. 16, 1965, Ser.No. 432,993

3 Claims. (Cl. 66-14) This invention is for improvements in or relatingto hosiery footwear, the present application being divided from U.S.application Serial No. 124,938, filed July 18, 1961 (now abandoned). Oneobject of the invention is to provide a method of forming open workfabric structure on circular rib knitting machines suitable for use inknitting hosiery.

The invention provides a method of performing knitting on a circularindependent needle rib knitting machine of the opposed needle cylindertype, wherein selected needles whilst in the top or rib cylinder arecaused to pass a knitting point whilst their latches .are held open by alatch guard. Such a method may be performed by causing needles whereofthe latches .are to be held open to be raised as they approach theknitting point so as to prevent their latches from becoming released ata notched portion of the latch guard.

The method according to the invention may be ernployed for knitting anIarticle of hose formed at least partly of a circularly knitted ribfabric incorporating tuck stitches in certain of the rib wales, moreparticularly in the sole part of the foot. For this purpose needles usedfor knitting the sole part of the foot may be organised for knitting ribfabric with certain of the needles arranged periodically while in thetop or rib cylinder to pass a knitting point whilst their latches areheld open so that certain ribV wales will be produced with tuck stitchstructure.

By an appropriate sequence of periodic tucking in certain rib wales anattractive fabric of open work construction is produced having longerth-an normal rib Wale stitches partly concealed by tuck loops appearingas spaced bars and presenting eyelet holes between each succeeding pairof tuck loops on each side of the rib Wale. Since the rib wales from theWale wise depressions in the face of a rib knitted fabric, the eyeletholes form throughways to the inside of the fabric leading from externalducts formed by said depressions. Thus particularly good aeration isprovided making the fabric suitable for incorporation at the soleportions of the feet of articles of hose. The formation of the eyeletholes also causes the rib structure to open out more in a course wisedirection providing wider wales differing strikingly in appearance fromordinary rib wales and thereby presenting useful ornamenting orpatterning possibilities.

It is found in practice that a particularly convenient form of laeratedfabric structure is `a 1 X 1 rib fabric wherein alternate rib Wales areknitted with tucking in alternate courses. Such Ia structure may bevaried by varying the number and incidence of the wales in which themodified structure with tuck stitches is provided. The formation of thetuck stitches causes the Wales wherein they are formed to occupy a widthabout three times that of a normal rib Wale so that wider and verydistinctive Wale wise furrows appear in the face of the fabric. Byvarying the particular wales in which tucking is effected patterningeffects produced by groups of Wider than normal rib wales separated byplain and normal rib wales and interposed between groups of normal ribwales sep-arated by plain wales can be obtained. Further patterningpossibilities exist by links-links selection of Wales in which rib tuckstitches are to be formed.

Certain preferred Ways in which the invention may be carried intopractice will now be described more particularly with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIGURES l, 2 and 3 show mens socks constructed in different ways inaccordance with the invention,

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fabric diagram illustrating the tuckribstructure employed, and

FIGURE 5 is a development view of part of the cam system used for theupper or rib cylinder.

Referring firstly to FIGURE 1 there is shown a mans sock having theusual 1 x 1 rib top 10, panel or leg 11, instep 12 and foot bottom 13 aswell as reciprocatorily knitted heel and toe pouches 14 and 15. The sockof FIG. l has the leg 11 and instep 12 of patterned fabric for examplein broad rib construction and the foot bottom 13 is knitted of open worktuck rib fabric as later described.

The socks shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 differ from that of FIG. l merely inthe structure of the leg 'and instep. Thus in FIGURE 2 the leg 11 andinstep 12 are knitted of unpatterned 1 x 1 rib structure Whilst the footbottom 13 is knitted as before of open work tuck rib fabric. In the caseof FIGURE 3 the open work tuck rib fabric is used not only in the footbottom 13 but also throughout the leg 11 and instep 12.

. FIGURE 4 shows on a greatly enlarged scale the fabric structure usedfor the foot bottom 13 of the socks of FIGS. l and 3 land Ialso in theleg and instep of the sock of FIG. 3. This preferred fabric structure isa 1 X 1 rib fabric wherein alternate rib wales are knitted with tuckingin alternate courses. The needle wales are indicated at 16, 17, 18, 19,20, 21 and 22, wales 16, 18, 24D and 22 being rib wales and wales 17, 19and 21 plain wales. Courses of knitting are indicated at 23, 24, 25 and26, courses 23 and 25 being those in which tucking occurs at alternaterib w-ales 18 and 22, and courses 24 and 26 being those in whichknitting occurs on all needles. As a result long held loops 27 and tuckloops 28 are formed in alternate rib wales such as 18 and 22 and onrelaxation of the fabric the wales 18 Iand `22 lare caused to occupy awi-dth about three times that of a normal rib Wale so that wider andvery distinctive walewise furrows appear in the face of the fabric. Thetuck loops 28 are lanchored in sinker wales indicated at 29 and 30between the rib and plain stitches in such a way that the tuck loops 28appear on the technical face of the fabric in front of the held loops27.

The tuck rib structure of the 4fabric causes the wales 18 .and 22 tohave longer than normal stitches partly concealed by the tuck loops 28which appear as spaced bars and present eyelet holes 31 between eachsucceeding pair of tuck loops 28 on each side of the held loops 27forming the rib stitches. The form of fabric illustrated in FIG.

4 is found to be a particularly attractive Iand effective open workfabric giving good aeration. Obviously, however, the tuck stitches maybe formed in the rib wales at different spacings both Wale wise andcourse wise to suit particular tastes or requirements.

FIGURE 5 illustrates in development view a portion of the cam system forthe top or rib cylinder of an orthodox sock knitting machine of theopposed needle cylinder type and shows how such a machine may bemodified to produce the rib tuck fabric. The cams shown are those in theregion of one feeding station of a machine equipped with two or morefeeding stations. Thus the normal stitch cam is shown at 32 and aclearing cam lat 33. A normal latch guard indicated at 34 has a notch 35formed in its lower edge. An upper cylinder slider is shown at 36 havinga double ended needle 37 equipped with lower latches 38 and upperlatches 39. During normal rib knitting a needle in the upper cylinderhas its lower latch 38 held open up to the knitting point by the latchguard 34 and an extension 34a thereof the tip of the latch being causedto follow a path approximately as indicated at 40. When a knitting butt41 on the upper slider 36 encounters the stitch cam 32 the top of thelatch 38 has normally reached the notch 35 and being no longerrestrained by the latch guard 34 commences to close tand, during thestitch drawing movement of the slider 36 by cam 32, becomes fully closedbeing then retained closed by the latch guard.

In practising the present invention the upper sliders 36 of needlesrequired to perform tucking when in the rib cylinder are equipped withadditional butts 42 at high level and a bolt cam 43 is provided toco-operate when required with the butts 42. Thus when the bolt cam isinserted upper sliders 36 having butts 32 will be raised by cam 43immediately before their butts 41 encounter the stitch cam 32. Theaction -of cam 431 is such as to raise the needles on the relatedsliders 36 so that the tips of their bottom latches 38 move along anupwardly inclined path 44 before encountering the notch 35 so that theydo not become released by the notch. The latches thus remain open whilethe needle pass the related feeding point and receive yarn in theirhooks without performing knitting, the old held loop being retainedbetween the open latch and the needle stem. The path of the tips oflatches 38 which miss the notch 35 in the latch guard continues asindicated at 45 so that the latches are held open until the needles havepassed the knitting station. For knitting the fabric structure of FIG.4, such needles are lthen caused to knit at the next knitting station tocomplete the tuck stitches. If desired the needles could be causedsimilarly t-o miss knitting at the next following knitting station alsowhen it is required to form tuck stitches having more thon one tuckloop.

It may be found desirable in certain cases for the latch guard 34 to berecessed on its inner face above the notch 35 to enable the latches 38when held open by the guard to occupy settings removed slightly fromtheir fully open positions and thereby avoid any tendency to cut ordamage Ithe yarn loops held behind the open latches. The manner offorming tuck loops is particularly suited to use when knitting bulkedyarns possessing stretch properties and can be employed in this casewithout any adjustments to the normal knitting action since the stretchproperties of the yarn prevent it from having excess localised stressesapplied to it.

The particular structure of the fabric required can be determined by alay out of the needle sliders 36 in the rib cylinder by suitablyproviding some or all of the sliders with butts 42. If desired themodilied operation of needles in the rib cylinder to produce tuckstitches can be arranged to be applied selectively to rib needles inaccordance with patterning dictates by the use of an appropriateselecting mechanism by means of which the selection of needles in therib cylinder for modified actuation is variable to conform to apreselected pattern set up on appropriate selecting mechanism.

The invention is not restricted to use with mens socks as it can also beapplied to childrens hose and to a ladies hose or anklet.

What I claim is:

1. A method of performing knitting on a circular independent rib needleknitting machine of the opposed needle cylinder type comprising thesteps of causing some needles to be placed in the rib cylinder whileothers are placed in the plain cylinder for the purpose of knitting ribfabric, causing selected ones of the needles in the rib cylinder to passa knitting point whilst their latches are held open by a latch guard,and performing knitting at said knitting point so that tuck stitches areformed on said selected ones of the needles in the rib cylinder.

2. A method according to claim 1 comprising the step of causing the saidselected ones of the needles in the rib -cylinder to be raised as theyapproach the knitting point so as to prevent their latches from becomingreleased for closure at a notched portion of the latched guard.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein raising of the said selectedones of the rib cylinder needles is effected by causing additional buttson the top cylinder sliders associated with such needles to co-operatewith a raising cam in the vicinity of the knitting point so as to raisethe needles and prevent their latches from being released by the latchguard.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,252,769 8/1941Houseman 66-14 2,412,248 l2/l946 Bristow 66-14 2,464,126 3/1949Fregeolle 66-14 2,819,599 l/1958 Burdett 66-14 X FOREIGN PATENTS 827,2872/1960 Great Britain.

DONALD W. PARKER, Primary Examiner.

R. FELDBAUM, Assistant Examiner.

1. A METHOD OF PERFORMING KNITTING ON A CIRCULAR INDEPENDENT RIB NEEDLEKNITTING MACHINE OF THE OPPOSED NEEDLE CYLINDER TYPE COMPRISING THESTEPS OF CAUSING SOME NEEDLES TO BE PLACED IN THE RIB CYLINDER WHILEOTHERS ARE PLACES IN THE PLANE CYLINDER FOR THE PURPOSE OF KNITTING RINFABRIC, CAUSING SELECTED ONED OF THE NEEDLED IN THE RIB CYLINDER TO PASSA KNITTING POINT WHILST THEIR LATCHES ARE HELD OPEN BY A LATCH GUARD,AND PERFORMING KNITTING AT SAID KNITTING POINT SO THAT TUCK STITCHES AREFORMED ON